Minjee Lee takes strong lead with second impressive round at Women's PGA Champ (0.36754176610978523)

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The Sun Sport
· 4 hours ago
Minjee Lee takes strong lead with second impressive round at Women's PGA Champ

<img src="https://thesun.my/binrepository/400x267/0c21/400d225/none/11808/XLOE/glf-spo-usl-kpmg-women-s-pga-championship-2025-round-three-230827_5344850_20250622081427.jpg"><p><b></b></p><p><b>HIGHER</b> scores have been on full display at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas. That makes Minjee Lee's performance so far even more impressive.</p><p>The Australia native fired a 3-under-par 69 on Saturday, her second round under par, to take a commanding four-stroke lead going into the final round.</p><p>Just five rounds total at the tournament have been in the 60s, and Lee has owned two of them.</p><p>“I just try to stay patient out there,“ Lee said. “You can’t get ahead of yourself, especially in these conditions. It’s just only getting harder and harder just with I think pressure of a major championship, and also just the course just demands so much from you.”</p><p>The 10-time LPGA Tour champion is pursuing her third major title, having previously won the 2022 U.S. Women's Open and the 2021 Amundi Evian Championship.</p><p>“I know what it takes to win and I know just kind of what to feel and what to expect now that I have two under my belt,“ Lee said. “So, yeah I just think the experience that I’ve had is really going to help me hopefully get over the line tomorrow.”</p><p>Lee avoided the ever-present bogey, which has haunted most of the golfers on this course, and instead grabbed three birdies, on Holes 9, 14 and 15 to distance herself from the competition.</p><p>That came on the heels of an opening round 69, which featured birdies on Holes 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 14 and 15.</p><p>The Fields Ranch East course at PGA Frisco was especially unkind Saturday to World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul, who is pursuing her first major, and who enjoyed a three-stroke lead coming into the weekend.</p><p>The 22-year-old from Thailand suffered six bogeys while scoring two birdies to shoot a 4-over 76 and fall from 6 under to 2 under.</p><p>Despite that disastrous round, she still sits in a better position than everyone else as one of two golfers currently under par, and she holds a three-shot lead on the rest of the field.</p><p>The three golfers in the best position to make a potential run on the two leaders Sunday sit in a tie for third at 1 over. South Korea's Hye-Jin Choi had the best round of the three (72), but Japan's Miyu Yamashita (73) and American Lexi Thompson (75) are technically still in the hunt.</p><p>Thompson shook off a triple bogey on her first hole and a bogey to follow to shoot 1-under golf the rest of the round.</p><p>“Yeah, definitely proud of how I just stayed strong,“ Thompson said. “It was kind of a nightmare of a start, but I knew coming into the day it was going to play very difficult. I don’t know really what happened on my first hole, but happy I got it out of the way and stayed positive out there and just made pars and a few birdies here and there.”</p><p>World No. 1 Nelly Korda (72) is tied with three others in sixth place at 2-over-par 218. Yealimi Noh (74), Ireland's Leona Maguire (72) and Japan's Chisato Iwai (75) are the others.</p>

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